THE IMAGE REMAINS clear in the mind because it so succinctly summed up a horror night for Ireland in Tokyo.
This is 19 October, 2019. The All Blacks have been tearing Ireland apart in their World Cup quarter-final at Ajinomoto Stadium. It’s the 79th minute and as the Kiwis get set to feed the ball into a scrum, the TV director goes to the Irish coaches’ box.
Joe Schmidt has a haunted look about him. He has taken his earpiece out – there’s no need for messages down to the touchline at this stage. His hands are clasped in front of him, the headphone held in one, and he’s resting his head against them.
In the background, some Irish fans who clearly aren’t too put out by their team being 41-14 down roar, smile, and wave their hands. Andy Farrell is sitting to Schmidt’s right and checks his notes, which surely don’t make for pretty reading.
Schmidt pulls his head up from their perch in his hands but only momentarily. He is almost motionless as the camera slowly zooms in on a broken man. You feel almost guilty for getting such a close-up view of the main’s pain.
20 seconds later, the All Blacks run in their seventh try of the game to put the icing on a cake made of Ireland’s mashed-up dreams. It has been an annihilation.
There’s an image from 2015 that’s still clear too. This is a few days before Ireland’s quarter-final exit at the hands of Argentina in Cardiff.
Schmidt has seemingly just learned that out-half Johnny Sexton isn’t going to be fit to face the Pumas. The playmaker suffered a groin injury the previous weekend against France and despite Schmidt’s hopes he might pull through, Sexton is out.
Ireland had already lost Jared Payne, Paul O’Connell, and Peter O’Mahony to injury. A marathon of a disciplinary hearing that same week eventually resulted in Sean O’Brien being suspended for the Argentina game.
So confirmation that Sexton is gone leaves Schmidt without the spine of his team. He looks agitated and dejected in that moment at Ireland’s team hotel two days before they try to make history and win the quarter-final. You even sense that they might already have lost.
The circumstances in 2015 were, of course, different to 2019. In Japan, Ireland weren’t shredded by injuries. In truth, their demise had been coming from many months before that as the steam ran out of the Schmidt era.
After a sensational 2018 that included a Grand Slam and a first-ever win against the All Blacks on Irish soil, Schmidt’s team were in decline. The Ireland head coach certainly wasn’t faultless in that downfall.
And yet, he probably felt the fallout was unfair. The IRFU’s review into that World Cup – or at least the synopsis the union’s performance director, David Nucifora, shared publicly – left us in no doubt that they felt Schmidt was at fault on a few accounts.
Up until 2019, Schmidt was a public darling in Ireland. On top of all the rugby glory – two Heineken Cups, a Pro12, a Challenge Cup with Leinster, as well as the Grand Slam, two other Six Nations titles, the first-ever wins over the All Blacks – he had received Irish citizenship. He went on the Late Late Show and people loved him.
Schmidt’s reputation in Ireland was clearly damaged by that miserable final chapter. The more that emerged about Schmidt’s strict approach, the more rugby fans questioned his legacy. Even during the current World Cup, there seemed to be indirect criticism of the Schmidt days as Ireland raved about their pre-season under Andy Farrell and co.
Schmidt said he was retiring from coaching when he left his Ireland role but nobody believed him. A stint with World Rugby as the governing body’s director of rugby and high performance was followed by his return to coaching with the Blues in Super Rugby and by late 2021, it was confirmed that Schmidt would join the All Blacks.
The catch was that he would come on board only after the Ireland tour of New Zealand in the summer of 2022 and that his new position would be as a selector. Again, you wondered whether Schmidt or the All Blacks would be able to resist using his coaching acumen on the training pitch.
When Covid-19 hit the All Blacks camp before the first Test, head coach Ian Foster among those testing positive, up stepped Schmidt and helped coach them to victory.
It’s been no surprise that Schmidt’s fingerprints have been all over the All Blacks since that series defeat. They have become a more organised and precise team with Schmidt coming on board full-time to help coach their attack, kicking game, and even defence. It’s hard to get a straight answer out of the Kiwis about his specific role, but word is that Schmidt’s influence is felt in every department. His analysis of other teams is crucial too.
One of the things that Schmidt struggled with during his time in Ireland, particularly later on, was dealing with the media. He was an articulate speaker but the media regularly left him visibly frustrated. The thought struck us more than once that he should give it far less energy than he did.
Funnily enough, Schmidt doesn’t have to give media work any energy at all now. He hasn’t done a single bit of it during the World Cup, in contrast to nearly every other assistant coach in the competition. The last time he did a press conference was back in May. Whether or not that was part of his agreement for taking on a bigger role with the All Blacks is unclear but we’ve not heard a peep from Schmidt.
That means his energy and focus have been going into helping make them a better team. While Foster, Jason Ryan, Scott McLeod, and Greg Feek obviously deserve huge credit for their roles in leading this team, there’s no doubt that Schmidt has been a pivotal driver in their passage to the final.
This Saturday night in Paris, we might get a different image of Schmidt’s emotions at the World Cup.